


Camaraderie

by shinealightonme



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Bonding, Comment Fic, Friendship, Gen, Poker, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-13
Updated: 2009-05-13
Packaged: 2017-10-03 19:45:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinealightonme/pseuds/shinealightonme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uhura makes some friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Camaraderie

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Uhura, unlikely friends." Originally posted [on LJ](http://yahtzee63.livejournal.com/404795.html?thread=10341435#t10341435).

Spock's going to be the rest of the night analyzing the data from the anomaly they'd passed earlier in the day, and Uhura knows the inflection of his voice well enough to tell this is the sort of "fascinating" that would bore her to tears. Still, she's self-sufficient; she doesn't need to be around him always, and she thinks it's a good idea to get to know some of her other crewmates a little better.

It's the end of shift, and when the new bridge crew has settled in, they make their way to the turbolift – all except Spock, who hasn't looked up from his station in two hours, and Kirk, who's twirling the captain's chair half way around, half way the other way, all the way around, and humming something under his breath. Two little boys playing with their Christmas presents, she thinks, and nearly rolls her eyes at their obsession, except she remembers night spent in the communications lab, eyes burning but unable to shut, leaving only when the sun's rising forced her to accept what time it was.

She's standing next to Sulu and Chekov now, and there's a strained, half-expectant silence. They aren't quite the people she had in mind, but they are going to be spending quite a lot of time together in the future and she figures, What the hell, why not. Sure, Chekov might call Kirk "Captain" with something approaching reverence, but he has an impish smile that suggests he's not all about hero worship and the chain of command. Sulu's much the same, business-like on duty but never wasting a second when Kirk tells him to take the ship into warp.

"Either of you play poker?" she asks casually. She's prepared for Chekov's sly grin and Sulu's proclamation that he is, in fact, excellent at poker, but she isn't quite ready for the way the next few hours vanish in a flurry of laughter and accusations and "accidents" while dealing, the discovery that Chekov counts cards and Sulu bluffs with nothing in his hand and never, ever folds. It's the kind of evening she hasn't had in too long, a crazier kind of fun than nights alone with Spock, and far less aggravating than night when Kirk invites himself over. It's something that had disappeared along with a hundred faces she'd once known, and the relief of reclaiming it is overwhelming.

In the end it is Spock who finds her and drags her away, the very opposite of her expectations for the evening, and she smiles apologetically to Sulu and Chekov as she leaves, cheered at the thought of seeing them again tomorrow on the bridge.


End file.
